Steve Ballmer

AllThingsD highlights an interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in which Ballmer says,

I don’t think anybody has done a product that is the product that I see customers wanting. You can go through the products from all those guys … and none of them has a product that you can really use. Not Apple. Not Google. Not Amazon. Nobody has a product that lets you work and play that can be your tablet and your PC. Not at any price point.

This is Microsoft’s problem in a nutshell. Ballmer thinks everyone wants their tablet to act like a laptop or desktop, and—if Windows 8’s Metro is any guide—their laptop or desktop to work like a tablet.

But not everything has to be a Swiss Army Knife. I don’t expect or want my $400 tablet to do everything my $1500 laptop does. Microsoft doesn’t seem to get it that the Apple, and to a lesser extent Android, succeeded where Microsoft failed in its Tablet PC efforts.

As one of the commenters on the AllThingsD story put it, Ballmer is complaining here that nobody is making refrigerators with built-in toasters. Yes. And, of course, there’s a reason for that.

Personally, I’ve been using Windows XP on the numeours computers I have to use, and I don’t plan on ever using another Microsoft OS. Ubuntu’s Good Enough(TM) without all the bullshit like this that Microsoft is constantly pulling,

A new court filing reveals disputes at Microsoft’s highest levels leading up to Windows Vista’s release — including CEO Steve Ballmer describing former Windows chief Jim Allchin as “apoplectic” over a move to lower the standards for the “Windows Vista Capable” logo.

. . .

Allchin, who has since retired from Microsoft, took the opposite view [over whether Microsoft should give the “Windows Vista Capable” logo to machines running the Intel 915 chipset]. The filing quotes from one of his e-mails:

I’m sorry to say that I think this plan is terrible and it will have to be changed.

I believe we are going to be misleading customers with the Capable program. OEMs (computer makers) will say a machine is Capable and customers will believe that it will run all the core Vista features. The fact that aero won’t be there EVER for many of these machines is misleading to customers. …

We need to meet on this. Please set this up ASAP. We need something simpler in my view. I know we don’t want to hurt the OEMS, but end-customers must be the top priority. We must avoid confusion. It is wrong for customers. And we probably will have to change your current plans.

Of course Allchin was overruled by Ballmer. What’s a little misleading of consumers between MS and Intel? Allchin resigned from Microsoft the same day Vista was officially released.